Community Organising

What’s the Non Profit Industrial Complex and why should I care?

This introductory zine explains the “non-profit industrial complex” and how it functions to limit radical movements. It draws heavily on the book “The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex” and presents examples of this works on an international and national level. This particular zine isn’t the most nuanced argument, but it’s a helpful introduction to the topic and asks important questions about the institutionalization of social struggles.

Some Remarks On The Need For Open Assemblies In Berlin

While rooted in recent experiences in Berlin, this zine is a worthwhile consideration of anarchist assemblies and their possible uses as informal structures able to facilitate actions without the need for formal organizations. The zine argues in favor of an approach in which affinity groups call assemblies on an “as-needed” basis to sharpen both contemporary struggles and analysis. It argues in favor of an organizing culture in which anarchists embrace a plurality of different views and perspectives and facilitate ways in which these perspectives can be shared, rather than “organizing” anarchists into one particular group, campaign, or struggle. The zine has a lot of important suggestions and ideas that could help facilitate a shift in how anarchists conceive of organization, affinity, and political identity.

Organising Social Spaces as if Social Relations Matter

In this essay, anarchist Cindy Milstein looks at how anarchists organize social spaces and asks how our efforts would be different if we organized in a way that prioritized social relations. Acknowledging that anarchist social spaces often are not the most welcoming spaces, Milstein shares reflections on the topic sparked by her participation in the 2013 Social Spaces Summit held in Unceded Salish Coast Territories. These reflections ask important questions about how things would look in our spaces and in our resistance if we organized in a way that emphasized the importance of social relations. This is a challenging zine in that it asks anarchists to think deeply about the environments we are creating within our spaces of resistance.

Anarchy and Alcohol

This zine by Crimethinc is a classic examination of the role that alcohol plays in the anarchist space. It features a critique that looks at how alcohol use (and abuse) within the anarchist space fosters apathy, connects with patriarchy, and blunts revolutionary efforts. A second essay looks at the role that alcohol and intoxication has played in the creation of civilization. Highly recommended!

Together: Booklet to Form Affinity Groups

“Together” is a lengthy zine that explains how to create affinity groups as a tactic for political action. The zine is very comprehensive, looking at how to form affinity groups, challenges affinity groups face, coordinating between affinity groups, how to make decisions, and more. The zine is also offers helpful suggestions for analyzing actions and looking out for poor group dynamics. The zine comes out of Germany and as such has a different context than what one might encounter in North America, along with a few translation issues. Still, it is worth consulting.

Anarchism and the English Language

This zine features an essay by Kristian Williams titled “Anarchism and the English Language” in which Williams criticizes many of the ways in which anarchists chose to communicate their ideas through written language. Williams criticizes the use of vague phrases, specialized language, rhetorical inflation, and more. It’s a very good consideration of the topic. The zine also features a brief piece by Crimethinc which questions some of Williams recommendations. Together, they make for an excellent discussion of the topic.

But What about Beer?

Sub-titled “A FAQ on drug consumption at common activist spaces â camps, events, social centers, etc”, this zine from Europe is designed to provoke a discussion about drug and alcohol use within activist spaces. It works as a rebuttal to many common objections about drug and alcohol use within radical political spaces.

The Illegitimacy of Violence, the Violence of Legitimacy

Coming out of the context of the debates within Occupy Wall Street as it spread across the United States, The Illegitimacy of Violence, the Violence of Legitimacy is an essay by Crimethinc that explores questions of “legitimacy” in social movements. What does it mean to be “legitimate”? What does it mean to be “illegitimate”? How are these terms related to the discourse around violence and non-violence? In exploring the topic, they conclude that the quest for “legitimacy” strengthens the state and weakens resistance movements.

Squatters’ Handbook ‘Political’ Squatting Tips

This zine from Homes Not Jails explores the idea and process of squatting as a “political” organizing tool. It offers a number of helpful tips on how to squat, the legalities of squatting, how to identify empty homes and other spaces, how to establish utilities, and how to fight evictions.

Small Town Organizing For Anarchists

This zine contains a wealth of helpful suggestions for anarchists living in small towns who want to create anarchy. Topics covered include finding other anarchists, deciding on what projects to work on, figuring out how to relate to liberals, and doing a distro—this zine is full of good ideas and advice.

Not only for small towns, the authors of the zine state: “If you can count the active anarchists in your areas on your fingers, this guide is for you.”

Seattle Logistics Zine

This very lengthy zine explores the logistical organizing and work that went into the 1999 convergence against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle. It provides a detailed overview of how several components of the mobilization were organized including security, space coordination, volunteer coordination, medical support, legal support, and the action scenario. This is an exhaustive zine that would be highly useful for folks interested in organizing and strengthening future mass mobilizations and direct actions.

Reading for Revolution

This zine collects three essays by the Black Orchid Collective on creating strategies for revolutionary reading groups. There are two shorter essays that explore important questions relating to literacy and education, while the bulk of the zine is the zine is the essay “Do-It-Yourself Strategies for Revolutionary Study Groups” that offers strategies and ideas for developing radical study groups. The suggestions are very specific, offering exercises that can be done to improve reading skills, build up confidence, and offer ideas for developing discussion points. There two appendixes that offer a sample curriculum and a bookmark that offers ideas for enhancing reading skills. This is a very detailed discussion that contains a lot of helpful suggestions.

Organising Communities

This zine by Tom Knoche explores the idea of “community organizing” and offers an anarchist critique of traditional approaches to community organizing. In place of those models, Knoche argues that anarchists can engage in this work in a way that promotes anarchist visions and practices. The author outlines some possible goals for anarchist community organizing while looking at how anarchists determine success in community organizing, the tactics they use, and how they decide where to place their focus.

Opening Doors A Primer

Opening Doors is a useful introduction to squatting. Whereas other zines on the topic are clearly dated, Opening Doors was written after the “housing crisis” and comes out of the context of increased foreclosures and empty houses. It discusses how to form a group, how to find a building, how to secure a building, moving in, and provides basic legal information (although it can be a little Portland-specific as that is where the authors come from). Overall, it’s a useful zine if you are interested in squatting or learning more about it.

Media A How to Guide for Activists

This zine provides a basic overview for working with the media. Covers writing press releases, developing talking points, interacting with the media, and evaluating coverage

Mass The Left And Other Walking Fossils

This zine is made up of selections from the book Anarchy in the Age of Dinosaurs. It was written by the Curious George Brigade back in the early to mid-2000′s at the tail end of what anarchists often refer to as the “anti-globalization era.” Some of it no doubt is a little dated, but for the most part it offers a good starting point for an anti-leftist critique: it rejects the idea of “the mass,” the notion of duty, single-issue campaigns, compromise, coalitions, permanence, false unity, etc. In their place, they offer a vision of anarchy based on affinity, decentralization, informal networks, and autonomy. There’s lots of good insights contained in here!

How to Promote Events

This zine is a modified version of a guide published by the Beehive Collective that shares ideas for organizing an promoting events. It begins with the basics of giving yourself enough time to successfully pull off an event, finding a venue, promoting an event (with tips for email, social networks, newspapers, etc), designing posters and leaflets, and other ideas. Throughout, there are good tips on promoting events based on the author(s) experiences.

How to Form an Affinity Group

This zine is a basic overview of how to form an affinity group. Goes over the basic components of affinity groups: assembling a group, developing and carrying out a plan of action, and consensus.

Copwatch 101

This guide—it’s really more of a “packet” than a zine—provides an overview of how to start a “copwatch” group. For those who are unfamiliar, copwatch groups seek to end police repression by monitoring and recording police interactions with people on the street and informing people of their legal rights. The guide explains how to do on-the-street observations, offers tips for recording the police, legal advice, and explains how police departments are structured.

Collectives Anarchy Against The Mass

This short zine provides a basic introduction to collectives and how they challenge the dominant notions of “mass” based politics and society. It argues that the goal of a collective is replication of its form—encouraging others to start their own collectively-run efforts—rather than persuading everyone to join one big collective. It’s a good read for people starting an anarchist collective.

Chasing After Ghosts

Subtitled “A critique of anarchist organizing, and its worst contradictions, in the North American context,” Chasing After Ghosts is a thorough critique of the anarchist milieu in the United States and Canada. It’s a strong and realistic critique that collects a lot of criticisms that have been said it various places and weaves them into a single critique. Going back to the anti-globalization era, it looks at many different anarchist practices: Food Not Bombs, summit protests, Really, Really Free Markets, collective houses, etc and discusses the limits (and in some cases positive attributes) of different anarchist practices. Chasing After Ghosts also delves into many anarchist controversies and debates including local organizing, coalitions, working with liberals and leftists, etc. The zine also offers some suggestions on where anarchists can go from here. It’s relevant to our local context (Grand Rapids, Michigan) and parts of it are likely relevant in cities across North America.

Caught in the Web of Deception

Caught in the Web of Deception: And Other Writings on Anarchists and the Media explores the anarchist attitude towards the media. Rather than operating from the assumption that all media coverage is good media coverage, Caught in the Web of Deception argues that the media plays a critical role in propping up capitalist democracy and that as such anarchists should approach it as the enemy. This is an updated version of a pamphlet originally published by Venomous Butterfly and this version substitutes the original discussion about anarchists and the media in Europe with communiques and writings about recent anarchist actions against the media.

Building: A DIY Guide to Creating Spaces, Hosting Events and Fostering Radical Communities

Building is a comprehensive guide to hosting events as a means of creating radical communities. The zine primarily provides a thorough guide to creating spaces (whether they be opening your house or some other type of space) for hosting events. While it is primarily concerned with hosting musical events, the ideas for organizing and promoting could be used for any type of event. The zine is very much rooted in anarchist politics and offers tips on dealing with the police, creating “safer spaces,” and even offers a helpful glossary of terms. This is a very good zine and one that properly orients DIY against the mainstream.

Build Your Own Solidarity Network

This zine looks at the Seattle Solidarity Network—an organization that uses direct action to fight for the specific demands of tenants and workers. It’s an interesting approach to anarchist “community organizing” and this zine offers a good overview of how to start such and organization while also delving into some of the strategic rationale that underlies their work. The zine covers everything including how to get started, what tactics seem to work well, how to run meetings, etc.

Build those Collectives

This zine provides an excellent overview on what a collective is, why you should organize one, how you do it, and what you do once the collective is formed. It offers a bunch of helpful ideas on everything from running meetings to communicating with other groups. It also includes several essays exploring different aspects of collectives, their history, and their power. Highly recommended!

Beyond Squat or Rot Anarchist Approaches to Housing

This zine from the 1990s looks at anarchist approaches to housing beyond squatting, focuses mainly on cooperatives, collectives, and the idea of anarchist neighborhoods and temporary autonomous zones. It offers some good criticisms and thoughts on the subject.

Anti-Mass Methods of Organization for Collectives

This is a classic essay from the 1970s that argues against idea of “mass” organizing in favor of focusing on the primacy of the collective. From the introduction: “The uniqueness of developing collectives is their definitive break with all hierarchic forms of organization and reconstructing of a class.

Fetishizing Process

Collective Process Overcoming Power

This zine looks at the often and sadly unrecognized dynamics that can often occur in egalitarian collectives. The zine covers common problems, how they manifest themselves, what the group and the individual can do to address them, and more. This zine is great for people having issues in their collective and for collectives who want to guard against such problems.

Untying the Knot

Feminism, Anarchism and Organization.

The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman.
The Tyranny of Tyranny by Cathy Levine

Shared Path Shared Goal

This zine is a great introduction to consensus process. It covers what consensus is, the hand signals used, why you should use consensus, the various roles in consensus process, and various tools that can be used to help the process. It also looks at some advantages and disadvantages of consensus and includes helpful drawings and diagrams. It’s a good thing to give to people new to consensus process.

Consensus A Brief Introductory Guide

This zine is a (very) brief starting point on consensus. It explains what consensus is, how to use consensus (facilitation tips, hand signals, roles, etc.), and explains how it differs from other forms of decision-making.

How to Put Together Your Own Consent Workshop

The full title of this zine is “How to Put Together Your Own Participatory, Community-Specific, Radical Consent Workshop.” The zine offers a thorough blueprint for one kickass consent workshop. The zine was assembled by, and this workshop model was beta tested by, a Seattle University student group called Northwest Break the Silence.

Quick Guide to Consensus Achieved

This is a quick guide to consensus that consensus-based groups can hand-out to newcomers and interested folks to help clarify how the consensus process works. From here the newcomers can learn by watching and participating.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or some pent up rage that hate mail would satisfy, email me: devilsclawdistro@gmail.com

I also have a blog (how modern and useless!):http://www.devilsclawdistro.blogspot.com/

Thanks y’all, Aaron

Consensus and Facilitation

Consensus

A Consensus Handbook – Co-operative decision-making for activists, co-ops and communities – Buy or Download

Consensus decision making is a creative and dynamic way of reaching agreement between all members of a group. Instead of simply voting for an item and having the majority of the group getting their way, a group using consensus is committed to finding solutions that everyone actively supports, or at least can live with.

A Consensus Handbook explains the spirit and philosophy of co-operative decision making as well as providing practical guidance on how to facilitate a consensus process. This comprehensive guide looks at common situations and explain the skills and tools your group can use to ease the path to a decision. This book covers techniques for decision-making in small and large groups as well as virtual meetings.

We’ve also included material on some of the pitfalls and problems you and your group may face – and have provided some suggestions of how to deal with them!

Whether you’re new to consensus or are experienced; whether you think it’s the best way to make decisions or are struggling to make it work: this handbook for consensus decision making is for you.

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A short guide to Consensus Decision Making A shorter version of our standard guide to consensus decision making (below) – read this if you want a basic introduction or a refresher. Web version | PDF – 325k

Consensus Decision Making Consensus is a decision-making process that works creatively to include all persons making the decision. This briefing includes sections on quick decision making, consensus in large groups and consensus troubleshooting. Web version | PDF – 2.7Mb

Consensus Flowchart A flowchart of how consensus can be reached – this complements our briefings on facilitation and consensus. Web version | PDF – 100k

Consensus Mice Poster/Leaflet The mice tell us about consensus in this short introduction. Includes a poster illustrating the consensus process and what we need to do to make consensus work well in our group – draft. A4 PDF – 2.6Mb

Facilitation

A short guide to Facilitating Meetings A shorter version of our standard guide to facilitating meetings (below) – read this if you want a basic introduction or a refresher. Web version | PDF – 250k

Facilitating Meetings Ever sat through a meeting that has dragged on and on, with tempers running high, people talking over each other and no decisions being made? This briefing has tips and advice on facilitating meetings and making them worthwhile, including facilitation roles, preparing a meeting, active listening, problems in meetings and large groups. Web version | PDF – 650k

Making Meetings Accessible A facilitator’s guide to how to adjust your meetings for people with physical and sensory impairments. Our guide on practical access issues may also be useful. Web version | PDF – 150k

Short Guide to Facilitating Workshops A quick introduction to preparing and running a workshop. Web version | PDF – 775k

Facilitating Workshops Running a workshop is a great way to share your skills or help people learn from each other. It can feel a bit daunting if you’re new to it, but this briefing will help you put a good workshop together. Web version | PDF – 1.2Mb

Facilitation Tools

Facilitation Tools for Meetings and Workshops A compilation of tools and techniques we find useful when working in groups and facilitating meetings or workshops. Web version | PDF – 1.8mb

A short guide to Group agreements for workshops and meetings Group agreements are a useful tool for getting your event off to the right start and keeping it on track. They help a group to come to an agreement on how it will work together respectfully and effectively. Web version | PDF – 150k

A short guide to Using Questions in workshops Questioning is a technique often used by facilitators during workshops, meetings or one-on-one mentoring or coaching as an alternative to presenting information and answers.This briefing discusses how you can use questioning as part of your facilitator’s toolkit. Web version | PDF – 325k

A short guide to Active Listening Active listening is a useful skill for all sorts of situations – whether you’re taking part in meetings and workshops or dealing with conflict. By actively listening we can come to understand how the speaker feels about a subject or situation – this briefing explains how we can hear people through their words and tune into their underlying emotions, concerns and tensions. Web version | PDF – 325k

A short guide to Giving and receiving feedback Feedback is an essential tool to help us learn new skills and improve existing ones. Like most things, giving inexpert feedback can hinder rather than help. This is a short guide to making the most of your feedback sessions. Web version | PDF – 315k.

Hand Signals – draft some of the most commonly used hand signals used to make meetings run more smoothly, and help the facilitator spot emerging agreements. Draft version – currently only available as PDF – 320k

Other Consensus and Facilitation Materials

Introduction to Consensus Workshop – PDF

Workshop plan (agenda) for you to use or adapt for your own workshop.

A Consensus Handbook Co-operative decision-making for activists, co-ops and communities A 230 page handbook explaining the spirit and philosophy of co-operative decision making, as well as providing practical guidance on how to facilitate a consensus process. Includes edited and expanded versions of materials available on this page, plus new material on how to address conflict and power imbalances in your consensus based group, facilitating virtual meetings and thoughts on how consensus might work on a community, regional or even national level. Order a copy (£3.50) or download: A5 PDF – 8 Mb

Working with Conflict in our Groups a guide for grassroots activists. This 40 page booklet, written by Seeds for Change Oxford and published by EYFA is aimed at people and groups working for social change who want to develop an understanding of conflict and how to deal with it. There are sections on what conflict is, the benefits of addressing it, and tools to work though conflict and maintain healthy and effective social change groups. A5 PDF – 315k

Groups and Meetings

Organising Successful Meetings

Good meetings are vital to working together as a group, whether this is a campaign group, a self-development or support group. They can make all the difference between a group feeling motivated and dynamic or a group getting stuck. Web version | PDF – 275k

A short guide to Access Issues at Meetings

Easy access to a venue is essential for a successful community event. This is a guide to practical access issues for event organisers when they’re planning a meeting or choosing a venue. (For a facilitator’s guide to access issues see Making Meetings Accessible). Web version | PDF – 390k

A short guide to Taking Minutes at Meetings

Minutes are a written account of the meeting, covering the main points of discussion, the decisions reached and actions to be taken. This guide explains how to take minutes, and why taking minutes can be a good idea. Web version | PDF – 275k

A short guide to Making Changes in your group

Ever wondered how to introduce a new way of doing things to your group? A step by step guide to how you can make changes in your group. Web version | PDF – 475k

Checklist for Encouraging People (to Be (and Stay) Involved in Your Group)

A short checklist for groups who want to attract more people. Draft version – currently only available as PDF – 40k

Planning your Campaign, Strategy

Affinity Groups Ideas, tools and skills for organising and taking action in a non-hierarchical and autonomous way – using affinity groups, buddies, quick consensus and spokescouncils. Web version | PDF – 1.4Mb

Planning your Project or Campaign Projects and campaigns usually start because we feel inspired – our first impulse is to throw ourselves into action straightaway. But if we take a little time to analyse the situation and to develop a plan of action we can increase our effectiveness and our chances of success. Web version | PDF – 205k

Action Planning – draft A guide to the steps you can take to make your action a successful one. Draft version – currently only available as PDF – 205k

Communicating your Campaign Message – draft At some point in time in the life of any campaign you’ll find yourself talking to others face to face about the issue – here’s some pointers to help you get your message across. Draft version – currently only available as PDF – 410k

Preparing for Action – draft Whatever kind of action you’re planning to take, preparation is key to success. Thinking about what to expect, what to take and what roles people can play is all too often neglected. Draft version – currently only available as PDF – 525k

External resources: Direct Action – a Handbook (2010) – lots of ideas and info on taking direct action. Delia Smith’s Basic Guide to Blockading Corporate Watch UK – extensive site including profiles, briefings and resources on researching and using material on corporations. Your Right To Know – How to use the law to get information from government, a briefing by Friends of the Earth

Funding and Finance

Fundraising for Activists There are many different ways of raising money and getting materials and equipment. You’ll find some of them in this guide together with general tips on raising cash and writing funding applications. Web version | PDF – 165k

Financial Literacy for Co-operatives – new We think it’s important that more than one or two people in any co-op understand what’s going on with the finances if we want to be truly democratic in our decision-making and develop successful alternative business models. So we wrote this guide aimed at anyone who is involved in co-ops: the aim is to demystify the world of finance to enable all co-op members to fully participate in financial decision-making. Web version | PDF – 1.1Mb

External resources: Simply Finance guide from Co-operatives UK, an excellent guide to finance in your co-op or other social enterprise. Volresource – huge site with lots of information for those in the voluntary sector – indispensable Funding Guides – from the S.Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau. Very extensive – cover topics such as grants, evaluation, making applications etc.

Legal, Security and Planning Issues

Computer Security Postcard Guide Worried about viruses, Big Brother and computer security in general? This is a simple, practical guide to computer security. Simply print it out, fold it to show your chosen level of security and keep it next to your computer. PDF – 125k

External resources for IT security: Tech Tools for activists is a 32 page booklet produced by members of the HacktionLab collective. It has been designed for activists who are not techies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Surveillance Self Defense Guide covers the basic technical information and makes suggestions as to what you can do to protect yourself when using computers and mobile devices. The Activist Security Collective have information on activist security generally.

External legal resources: Activists Legal Project – information about the law for people who are thinking of taking direct action, or who have taken direct action. Your Rights – guide to human rights law in England and Wales. Rights of protest, free expression, privacy, freedom of information, redress, suspects, defendants, prisoners, discrimination, immigrants, mental disorder, children and young people, workers, travellers, the bereaved, parents, property and victims and witnesses of crime, and contains articles on the The Human Rights Act.

External planning resources: Campaign for Planning Sanity – extensive site with information regarding planning issues, and how to use theplanning process to beat adverse developments. Mast Sanity provides information and resources on campaigning against mobile phone masts.

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Translations and non-English language adaptations

These are translations of our work done by other groups. Please contact us if you translate or adapt any of our work so that we can link to it.

Chinese | 汉语 Translated by Chine Chan for The Rights Practice

Consensus decision making

Czech | Český Translations by Green Action

Rozhodování konsensem: Consensus decision making
Facilitace na schůzkách Facilitation
Několik technik pro facilitaci: Tools for facilitation
Znamení rukama: Handsignals
Aktivní naslouchání: Active listening
Jak dělat změny ve vaší skupině?: Making changes in your group
Afinitní skupiny: Affinity groups

French | Français Translations by Agir pour la Paix

mini-guide facilitation réunions livret: Short guide to facilitating meetings
mini-guide facilitation réunions supplément livret: Short guide to facilitation tools
mini-guide facilitation ateliers livret: Short guide to Short guide to facilitating workshops
mini-guide consensus livret: Short guide to consensus decision making
mini-guide accords de groupe livret: Group agreements
mini-guide retours livret: Giving and receiving feedback
guide outils facilitation livret: Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops

German | Deutsch Translations by Kommunikations Kollektiv

Moderationsmethoden: Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops
Konsens in Großruppen: Large Groups Consensus Flowchart

Polish | Polski

Podejmowanie decyzji poprzez osiąganie konsensusu: Making decisions by consensus (adapted from an article in Handbook for Changing Our World, edited by the Trapese Collective)

Romanian | Română

Facilitarea. Ce? Cum? De ce?: Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops
Limbajul semnelor: Hand signals
Ascultarea activă: Active listening
Folosirea întrebărilor în ateliere: Using questions in workshops

Russian | Русский язык Translated by Радикальная Теория и Практика

Настольная книга по консенсусy: A Consensus Handbook

Serbian | Srpski | Cрпски

Odlučivanje konsenzusom: Consensus decision making
Moderiranje sastanaka: Short guide to facilitating meetings
Problemi pristupa događajima: Access issues in meetings
Aktivno slušanje: Active listening
Promene unutar grupe: Making changes in your group

Spanish | Español

Consenso en grupos grandes: Consensus in large groups

Unsorted

Going beyond activism
Give up Activism: Postscript
Queer Disidentification
‘‘Give up Activism’’ and Change the World in Unknown Ways Or, Learning to Walk with Others on Uncommon Ground by Paul Chatterton
New Perspectives in Political Ethnography
Agency in the Margins: Stories of Outside Rhetoric
Militant Ethnography: Political Engagement and Social Movements Research
You’re not going to write about this are you?
Chicana Feminism and Postmodernist Theory